By Sean McGovern
AXA
XL is committed to creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace. Increasing
the representation of women across our organisation, particularly in senior and
technical roles, is an important part of that effort.
Like
all businesses with more than 250 employees across the UK, we’re reporting our
Gender Pay Gap figures for 2020. Gender Pay Gap reporting is a key indicator of
how we are doing in working towards gender balance and parity. It’s important
to note that the Gender Pay Gap shows the average earnings of men and women
across an organisation or market. It doesn’t indicate differences in pay for
comparable jobs; gender pay equity is a distinct issue.
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| Sean McGovern |
We’re
reporting the mean and median average Gender Pay Gap figures for a snapshot in
time on April 5, 2020. The mean Gender Pay Gap shows the difference between the
average hourly earnings of men and women in our organisation in the UK, while
the median Gender Pay Gap shows the difference between the midpoints in the
range of hourly earnings for men and women.
Our
2020 mean Gender Pay Gap was 29.6% and the median Gender Pay Gap was 32.3%.
Both of these gaps show a year-on-year improvement compared with 2019; the mean
Gender Pay Gap reduced by 10%, while the median gap reduced by 6.3%.
We’re
making progress. But, as with most of our industry peers, these results show
that there is still a gender pay gap within our organisation. For context,
in 2019, the insurance industry’s median Gender Pay Gap was 30% compared with
12.9% for all UK companies. We need to address this disparity, but we also
recognise that it is not a quick fix and there is much work to be done.
At
AXA XL, we’re taking decisive steps to address the imbalance in gender equality
in our industry, and our own organisation specifically. One of these steps was
the rollout in 2020 of an updated Diverse Slate Policy, which requires hiring
managers to interview a slate made up of at least 50% women for every open role
across all levels in our organisation.
More
senior women
In
2018, we signed up to the Women in Finance Charter, a pledge to work towards
gender balance across financial services in the UK. We believe we are on track
to meet our charter goal of 35% of senior roles in the UK filled by women by
2023; at the end of 2020, women held 32% of senior roles in our UK
organisation.
One
of the measures that we record as part of Gender Pay Gap Reporting is the Bonus
Gap. This is an indicator of how many women are in, or being promoted to,
senior roles. I’m pleased to say that the proportion of men and women receiving
a bonus in our organisation for the year to April 5, 2020 showed a step in the
right direction; 95.4% of female colleagues received a bonus, compared with
95.3% of male colleagues (compared with 93.6% for women and 95.6% for
men in 2019).
But
there is a way to go before the Bonus Gap is closed. The Bonus Gap shows the
mean and median differences in the amount of bonus pay awarded to male
colleagues compared to the bonuses awarded to female colleagues. At April 5,
2020, our mean and median bonus gaps were 56.8% and 45.4%, respectively. This
is a marked improvement on the comparable period for 2019 (which showed a mean
of 60.9% and median of 58.5%), but we want to narrow this gap still further by
making sure we have more women in senior roles being remunerated for their high
performance.
Our
leaders understand our commitment to creating an inclusive culture and
achieving gender parity. And they recognise their responsibility in making this
happen. Each and every one of our leaders is accountable for driving inclusion
and gender parity across their business units. We have put in place specific
goals for our leadership teams to increase the representation of women in
leadership roles – these are broken down into recruitment, promotion and
retention.
This
is important not only because it will improve the representation of women in
the leadership of our organisation, but also because it will have a cascade
effect all the way through our business. We want women looking at this industry
– and at AXA XL in particular – to see people like them at the top, achieving
their goals.
As
we move forward, we have set ourselves some ambitious targets to ensure that
our momentum towards better gender balance continues. One of our strategies for
2021 is to set goals – and hold leaders accountable – for increasing the
representation of women in senior leadership globally.
As
part of this, senior leaders will sponsor high-potential women to take on
critical, on-the-job development opportunities. The aim is to accelerate the
advancement of women by giving them an equal opportunity to demonstrate their
capabilities in taking on large and highly visible projects, mission-critical
roles and international assignments. Leaders will identify these opportunities
and ensure that women across our organisation have the resources they need to
be successful and, crucially, that they are given the visibility to showcase
their accomplishments.
Making
I&D part of our ID
Achieving
better gender balance is just one part of our drive to create a more inclusive
and diverse workforce, and to make AXA XL the employer of choice for people of
all backgrounds.
During
2020, we revamped our Business Resource Groups (BRGs), which have specific
goals that work towards making AXA XL a place where all colleagues feel
welcomed and able to reach their highest potential.
These
BRGs now comprise 25 chapters around the world. The Pride BRG provides a forum
for LGBT+ colleagues and allies to network; the Rise BRG aims to support the
development and inclusion of colleagues from underrepresented racial and ethnic
groups; EnAble seeks to foster the inclusion of colleagues with disabilities –
both visible and invisible.
And
the LEAD BRG aims to encourage a culture of inclusion for all colleagues. LEAD
– Leading, Empowering and Advancing Diversity – seeks to engage both women and
men to accelerate gender equality at AXA XL. Achieving gender equality in the
workplace is a job for all of us.
We’re
treating I&D as we would any other business priority. I truly believe that
having an inclusive culture and diverse workforce makes our workplace better
for everyone – for us as individuals and as a company and for the clients whom
we serve.
(Author: Sean McGovern is CEO, UK & Lloyd's market at AXA XL. Views are personal)
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